1st Parliament of Ontario
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|
| 1st Parliament of Ontario | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Coalition parliament | |||
| Sep. 3, 1867 – Feb. 25, 1871 | |||
 | |||
| Parliament leaders | |||
| Premier | John Sandfield Macdonald | ||
| Party caucuses | |||
| Government | Conservative Party | ||
| Opposition | Liberal Party | ||
| * Coalition government | |||
| Legislative Assembly | |||
| Speaker of the Assembly | John Stevenson | ||
| |||
The 1st Parliament of Ontario was the inaugural legislature of the Province of Ontario following Canadian Confederation. Its composition was determined by the 1867 Ontario general election held in conjunction with the first Canadian federal election over several weeks in August and September. It was in session from December 27, 1867, until February 25, 1871, just prior to the 1871 general election.
This parliament along with the 1st Quebec Legislature and the 1st Canadian Parliament were joint successor-legislatures of the 8th Parliament of the Province of Canada, the final composition of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada.
John Stevenson served as speaker for the assembly.[1]
Composition
[edit]On the surface, the 1867 general election produced a virtual tie between the Conservative Party led by John Sandfield Macdonald and the Liberal Party led informally by Archibald McKellar.
| Political party | Party leader | Candidates | Seats | Votes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | |||||
| Conservative | John Sandfield Macdonald | 78 | 41 | 80,111 | 50.28% | |
| Liberal | Archibald McKellar | 80 | 41 | 77,689 | 48.76% | |
| Independent | 15 | – | 1,523 | 0.96% | ||
| Total | 173 | 82 | 159,323 | 100.00% | ||
| Registered electors | 215,722 | |||||
| Acclamations | █ Conservative | 2 | ||||
| █ Liberal | 4 | |||||
The partisan make up of the legislature was not as straight forward as the numbers suggest. Political parties in the early days of confederation were characterized by "loose coalitions" that may change from issue to issue.[2] The party labels on official record for those early elections were retroactively applied after partisan political system was more formalized, and thus were not all accurate. For example, Edmund Burke Wood, Ontario's inaugural Treasurer who was also elected to the federal parliament, was recorded as elected to the Ontario legislature as a conservative (likely because he served in the Sandfield Macdonald ministry) and to the House of Commons as a Liberal (likely because he returned to the Liberal fold in 1873 and was later appointed by Liberal prime minister Alexander McKenzie to be chief justice of Manitoba). In 1867 however, he was explicitly repudiated by the South Brant Liberal association, was elected to both seat as a coalitionist, and his opponent for the federal seat, Henry Blakey Leeming was none other than the local Liberal association president.
Dual mandate
[edit]In the first several years of Confederation, individuals could hold seats in federal and provincial parliaments simultaneously. The following men were elected to both the House of Commons and the Ontario legislature in 1867:
- Edward Blake, elected MP for Durham West and MLA for Bruce South, later Premier of Ontario and federal Liberal leader
- John Carling, elected MP and MLA for London, a key lieutenant of Sir John A Macdonald and later a member of his federal cabinet
- Thomas Roberts Ferguson, elected MP for Cardwell and MLA for Simcoe South
- John Sandfield MacDonald, elected MP and MLA for Cornwall, Ontario's first Premier
- Edmund Burke Wood, elected MP and MLA for Brant South, Ontario's first Treasurer in the Macdonald ministry
Two further members were elected to the federal parliament during this parliament:
- John Lorn McDougall, MLA for Renfrew South, was elected MP for the same electoral district in a 1869 by-election
- Frederick William Cumberland, MLA for Algoma, was elected MP for the same electoral district in a 1871 by-election
Sessions
[edit]There were four sessions in duration of the first Ontario Parliament:[3]
- 1st session - December 27, 1867 to March 4, 1868
- 2nd session - November 3, 1868 to January 23, 1869
- 3rd session - November 3 to December 24, 1869
- 4th session - December 7, 1870 to February 15, 1871
List of Members
[edit]‡ Concurrently an MP. Names in bold indicate member of cabinet (Sandfield Macdonald ministry)
Changes to composition
[edit]The make up of the first parliament was fairly stable, with only a few changes.
| Electoral District | Departed Member | New Member | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Vacated | Reason | Member | Elected | |||
| Niagara | Donald Robertson | December 27, 1867[h] | Resignation before taking seat | Stephen Richards | December 11, 1867 | ||
| Frontenac | Hon. Sir Henry Smith | September 18, 1868 | Death | Delino Dexter Calvin | October 19, 1868 | ||
| Huron South | Robert Gibbons | December 9, 1868 | Election overturned | Isaac Carling | December 14, 1868[c] | ||
| Lanark South | William McNairn Shaw | January 6, 1869 | Death | Abraham Code | February 6, 1869 | ||
| Renfrew North | John Supple | October 22, 1869 | Resignation | Thomas Murray | December 1, 1869 | ||
| Prince Edward | Absalom Greeley | December 7, 1870[h] | Resignation (acceptance of office of emolument from Crown) | William Anderson | June 30, 1870 | ||
Notes
[edit]- ^ Partisan affiliations per records compiled by the Legislative Library of Ontario[4] in later years
- ^ Entitled to the honorific by nature of having been a cabinet minister (Solicitor General) of the United Province of Canada.
- ^ a b Gibbons defeated Carling in the election by 10 votes. Carling challenged the election results, and the matter was tried by a special committee consist of five members, which concluded Carling would have had a majority of the votes of those voted unlawfully were discounted. The committee reported its finding to the house on December 9, the clerk proceed strike Gibbons' name out and replaced it with Carling's on December 10, and Carling was sworn in and seated on December 14. No by-election was held.[8]
- ^ As reported in this day's journal of the legislature, "Mr. Carling (South Huron), having previously taken the oath and signed the roll, took his seat."[9]
- ^ Resigned prior to the convening of legislature to make room for cabinet member Stephen Richards who failed to win his own seat in the general election. Resignation formally entered into the record on the first day of the first session.
- ^ Sworn in on the same day with other members upon the convening of legislature
- ^ Entitled to the honorific by nature of having been a Legislative Councillor of the United Province of Canada.
- ^ a b Date the house was informed. Resignation took place earlier while house was not in session
- ^ "Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario". Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Archived from the original on 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2014-08-29.
- ^ Farr, David (2007). "House of Commons Debate" (PDF). House of Commons Debate. 5th. Introduction (at p4). ISSN 0229-1398.
- ^ Forman 1984, p. 1.
- ^ Forman 1984.
- ^ "John Sandfield Macdonald | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ "Henry Smith | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ "Delino Dexter Calvin | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ OLA 1869, p. 54-58.
- ^ OLA 1869, p. 66.
- ^ "William McNairn Shaw | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ "Abraham Code | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ "John Carling | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ "Absalom Greeley | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ "William Anderson | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ "John Supple | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
- ^ "Thomas Murray | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org.
References
[edit]- Forman, Debra (1984). "1st Legislature". Legislators and legislatures of Ontario. Vol. 2. Legislative Assembly of Ontario. p. 1. ISBN 0-7743-9021-2.
- OLA (1869). "Session 1868-9 (2nd Session of the 1st Parliament)" (PDF). Journal of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 2. Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
External links
[edit]- All Members serving in Parliament 1 Archived 2012-09-26 at the Wayback Machine